Congratulations on Your Special Day

This card was a commission and not the easiest card to make. It took me a week to come up with something but only because it had to be in black and white. I snuck in the greys and silvery bits because it wouldn't have worked otherwise but I think it turned out okay. If I had to do it again, I would dry emboss a frame into the black background. I used Mama Elephant's Femme Frames for the card base (technique shown in this video) and Bold Banner for the sentiment which is from the Water Blooms stamp set. The Man & Wife dies are from Papertrey Ink.

See you in a few hours for the Mama Elephant December Stampede! :)

Sources:

InLinkz.com

{Mama Elephant} Simply Wonderful

I was commissioned to make a last-minute wedding card for tomorrow. Based on the couple's wedding colours (shown at left), I came up with this design using Mama Elephant's Lovely Mums and Smitten stamp sets. I masked 'you are' off the sentiment and tucked it in between the petals. I tried to incorporate the green with cardstock, ink and twine but no matter what I tried, it looked terrible. In the end, I decided the card would be better without it. The buyer was pleased with the end result, which is what counts.

Thanks for stopping by today! Wishing you all a wonderful Labour Day weekend!

Sources:

InLinkz.com

Holiday Cheer

I finished up another commission yesterday and thankfully it was before I fell down the stairs. I know, I've got to stop doing that! I do have nightmares about it being fatal one day which is really scary. For some reason stairs and I just don't get along! This time I twisted my left knee and shoulder, plus I can't move my neck backwards without severe pain so I'm going to get off the computer as soon as I finish this post and schedule tomorrow's Lil' Inker Designs release.

One of the themes for the Hero Arts December Contest is card sets which ended up being perfect since I already had this commission to fulfill. The firm designs bicycles for manufacturers all over the world so these cards had to feature a bike. Of course, I think of Hero Arts when I think of bike stamps! I own almost all of their bike stamps. That doesn't surprise you, right? ;) I used the Envelope Pattern and Snowing Village as back drops. The little bicycle is from Joy Ride and the sentiment is from Holiday Cheer. My client chose this sentiment out of all the holiday ones that I own. He really liked the style of my other bulk commission, hence the tabs to the left of the Snowing Village.

The distress inks worked out nicely because it made the bike tires look like spiked tires which are perfect for the snow. I used a Copic pen to draw in the black frames. I also added bling to some of the flakes for visual interest. I would've loved to have included dimension on these cards but, unfortunately, commissions that will be mailed all over the world need to be flat.

See you tomorrow for the reveal of a new line of stamps from Lil' Inker Designs and 2 Cute Ink!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft, white & red cardstock; SU Old Olive cardstock; Hero Arts Envelope Pattern, Snowing Village, Holiday Cheer & Joy Ride; Hero Arts Snow chalk ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Pumice Stone, Peeled Paint & Fired Brick distress inks; Copic 0.8mm Multi-Liner; Papertrey Ink Double-Ended Banners die; Ranger Diamond Stickles

Season's Greetings

Today I'll be sharing 18 cards with you. 18 of the same cards, that is. ;) This is my third official corporate commission and I seem to be adding one every year. At this rate, I may not be able to keep up! LOL This project has been about six weeks in the making. First, I had to dream up a design that incorporated the essence of the company as well as their corporate colours. Then I had to order the stamps, estimate all the measurements and get the logo die cut. That's where having an incredible bloggy friend like Meg came in handy. I got to use her Silhouette from 1600 kilometres (or 1000 miles) away!

At first the company requested a dozen cards so I ordered 16 of their logo. I even asked Meg to make a few extras but the company added six more cards to their order which left me with two short. I contacted Meg again and she knew what to do. She sent me plenty of extras just in case. Let me just say that it would've been faster to drive to Alabama and back but thankfully we had plenty of time! Meg, you're the best. :)

Once all the logos were in my possession, I went to work. I completed these in stages, sometimes with several days in between each stage. Just stamping the Formula Fun math background 18 times was a lot of work and my fingers and forearms were sore afterwards! The rest of it wasn't so bad, 'til I got to the rounding of the corners. Can you imagine punching out 72 corners? I must've been out of my mind to do it all in one go. The absolute worst part? Adhering those die cuts! LOL I won an Xyron last year and haven't used it much because it leaves globs and webs of glue in the little spaces and I have to use an X-acto knife to clear out every single space. Is it me or does anyone else have that problem? After adhering the first one, I walked away and dreaded completing this project. Eventually, when I felt like I had more patience, I went to work and completed all 18 cards. I don't think the company knew exactly what they were ordering but I heard they were impressed. They're already talking about next year's order so I guess that's good, right? ;)

I hope you're all having a splendid weekend!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury Soft Sand, Black Onyx & white cardstock; SU Tangerine Tango cardstock; Hero Arts Formula Fun; Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Holiday; Tim Holtz for Ranger Pumice Stone distress ink; Memories Black ink; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper; The Twinery Mandarin baker's twine